California was the first state in the nation to enact legislation aimed at enhancing tribal consultation in land-use and environmental planning. Through Senate Bill 18 (2004) and Assembly Bill 52 (2014), state leaders provided an avenue for integrating Indigenous knowledge into local land-use decisions, especially for cultural and ecological sustainability. This webinar will highlight a recent study evaluating the impact of this legislation, identify constraints, and provide practice-based recommendations to assist stakeholders across the nation to improve tribal consultations.
Meet the Speakers
Michael Mendez
Associate Professor and Chancellor's Fellow
School of Social Ecology, Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy University of California, Irvine
Michelle Zuñiga
Assistant Professor of Urban and Community Planning
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Michael Méndez
Michael Méndez is an associate professor of environmental policy and planning at the University of California, Irvine, and a Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, supported by a National Science Foundation Early Faculty Career Award. He was previously the Pinchot Faculty Fellow at the Yale School of the Environment.
His first book, “Climate Change from the Streets,” published by Yale University Press, won the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award (sponsored by the International Studies Association), the Association for Humanist Sociology’s Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Award, and the Paul Davidoff Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. In 2022, he received the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.
Michelle Zuñiga
Michelle E. Zuñiga is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Community Planning at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She specializes in transportation equity and environmental justice, examining how planning policies and infrastructure investments shape mobility and access for historically marginalized communities. Her research uses qualitative and community-engaged methods-including interviews, focus groups, and participatory fieldwork–to center resident perspectives in planning and policy evaluation. Her work has been published in Cities, Housing Policy Debate, and the Transportation Research Record, contributing to national conversations on transit accessibility, neighborhood change, and the equity implications of state and federal transportation initiatives.
October 29
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
